Abstract

 
 
 Science and mathematics teacher professional development in South Africa does not adequately address teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge or ability to integrate indigenous knowledge into the curriculum. This situation is partly due to traditional teacher professional development programmes that utilise top-down and expert-driven approaches without consulting teachers. This “one- size-fits-all” model is rarely relevant to teachers’ classroom realities, especially in rural areas. The research question that guided this research was: How could the professional development intervention be contextualised to better meet the educational needs of a rural environment? In this paper, we explore the design principles for teacher professional development interventions that could addressthe needs of teachers and the context, acknowledging that teachers in rural areas face different challenges compared to teachers in urban areas. We use the Hantam region of the Northern Cape Province as a case study to explore the affordances of partnerships with local indigenous knowledge holders and cultural institutions (museums) in the professional development of teachers. Data were generated from semi-structured interviews with Hantam school and community participants using a qualitative approach. Two major themes that emerged from this qualitative research was that (a) the involvement of indigenous knowledge holders and museums as “third partners” in the value chain between universities and schools, could greatly assist to better contextualise the “western” science curriculum, and (b) the incorporation of indigenous knowledge in the STEM curriculum could assist in building the self-esteem of learners. We argue that contextualising science and mathematics teacher professional development for the rural environment has affordances for improving not only teacher competencies, but also learners’ views on the relevance of science and mathematics in everyday life.
 
 
Highlights
In order to be a global player in the world economy, South Africa needs innovative and creative scientists, but this means that science education in the country has to be greatly improved (Centre for Development and Enterprise, 2011)
In this paper we reflect on design principles for teacher professional development interventions that could better address the needs of teachers and the rural sector
We aim to address the gap between teacher professional development and their educational needs by investigating how teachers could be assisted to infuse indigenous knowledge into the science and mathematics curricula
Summary
Researchers note that many professional development programmes are imported products, implemented uniformly from a top-down perspective and based on expert knowledge that is irrelevant to the classroom realities of teachers, especially in rural areas (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Bantwini, 2009; Ono & Ferreira, 2010; De Beer, 2016). We aim to address the gap between teacher professional development and their educational needs by investigating how teachers could be assisted to infuse indigenous knowledge into the science and mathematics curricula. This research contributes to the national “decolonising of the curriculum” debate by contextualising teacher professional development for a rural environment. The research question guiding this research was: How could the professional development intervention be contextualised to better meet the educational needs of a rural environment?
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